A recent study out of the State University of New York at Albany concludes that a woman’s voice becomes more attractive when she is most fertile. How would they figure that out, you wonder? Here’s what they did:
They recorded women counting from 1 to 10 at four occasions during their menstrual cycle. [Now, this gives away these guys as unimaginative academics. I would have had them saying things like “I love you” and “Where’s my bra?” and “Pass the ketchup.” But they obviously wanted to neutralize the process as much as possible.] Anyway, they then played the recordings to both males and females and asked that they rate the attractiveness of the voices. The result: both men and women judged the women’s voices to be most attractive if they were recorded during the peak fertility period of the menstrual cycle, and less attractive if they were recorded during non-fertile periods.
This shows, said one researcher, that the female voice box, or larynx, is under the influence of sex hormones. Who knew?
You might relate this study to one done last year at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque [although I’m highly suspicious of words that have 3 u’s in them]. Now, here’s one academic type who at least knew how to pick his subject. He studied lap dancers. The upshot of this important study was that he discovered that lap dancers earn more tips during their fertile days. “The voice changes might explain some of the shift in lap dancer tip earnings,” he hypothesized. “Dancers certainly chat with their customers.” I suspect that they are not counting 1 to 10, however, as in the Albany study.
posted on May 11, 2008 8:04 AM ()
Although I'm no longer fertile nor a lap dancer, people say I have a lilt in my voice.
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